In a recent interview, former UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria continued to taunt former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev as he discussed his upcoming bout against former champion Charles Oliveira at UFC 317. In which he was gracious towards Oliveira but very much critical of the Chechen-Russian former champion.
“I’m very happy with the fight, to be honest. I was expecting to fight another guy, which is Islam Makhachev, but unfortunately he ran away. Now we are facing Charles Oliveira, another legendary fighter in the UFC. So, I’m very excited.”
“To be honest, I don’t know. He decided to move up to the next weight division, as I did. He talked too much in the beginning, but finally, when he had to take a final decision, he decided to run away. I wasn’t expecting that from him. But at the end of the day, it is what it is. I’m fighting for the gold, which was my main goal since the beginning.”
The Georgian-Spaniard continues to follow up his boisterous attitude in dismissing his opponents before brutally beating them down in the rings, as he did with the two greatest featherweights of all time, Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski.
Ilia Topuria is trying to have a GOAT’s legacy before he is even thirty.
Should Ilia Topuria defeat Charles Oliveira, and even finish him, it would already cement him as having the greatest rise in UFC history, as not only would he be a two-division champion, but also defeat the best of both divisions brutally. A surge that would rival that of Conor McGregor’s back in 2016.
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